Description

Our earliest mythologies tell us we all start as a little bit of dirt. These stories carry a profound message: each of us is born with a deep and abiding connection to the earth, one that many of us have lost touch with. The "Silent Spring" for today's environmental activists, this book offers an invitation to reestablish our relationship with nature to repair our damaged environment.
Chapter 1 examines the threats to the planet's health through the lens of the human energy system known as the chakras, describing how the broken first chakra relates to our disconnection from our biosphere.
Chapter 2 shows how our current environmental crises--global warming, climate change, dwindling water resources, natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes--represent severe manifestations of our disconnection from the earth.
Chapter 3 describes how the preponderance of oil in our culture--especially agribusiness--compounds this disconnection, from our dependence on other countries for our energy, to current issues of oil depletion, peak oil, and fracking, to the dumbing down of our agricultural polyculture.
Chapter 4 explains how the most basic building blocks of our nourishment--seeds--are being compromised with a loss of biodiversity and rise of GMOs, and how that adversely affects the farmers whose sacred connection to the land has in many cases been severed.
Chapter 5 describes the ways in which we as individuals can begin to wake up to climate activism as a spiritual practice. This chapter includes specific activities that you can use to implement change and heal your own connection to the earth. By learning and practicing ritual and understanding the earth's rhythms and seasonal rites of passage, each of us can find unique ways to heal our own connections and help others heal theirs.
Chapter 6 looks at stories of how people are responding to their inner callings with generosity, innovation, and dedication--exactly the traits our nation and our planet need now.show more

About Ellen Gunter

ELLEN GUNTER is a climate activist who lectures, delivers Al Gore's slideshow on climate change, and writes about the connections between spirituality and the environment. TED CARTER has been designing earth-centric landscapes along the northeast coast for more than thirty years. His award-winning work has been featured in local and national publications. The author lives in Oak Park, IL/Buxton, ME.show more

Review quote

"A book that should be required reading for every single person.... We have strayed from our fundamental nature and we must find our way back to our primary rapport with the earth and our own life instincts before we lose sight of those precious instincts entirely." --From the foreword by Caroline Myss
"Whether we are a species in hospice or yet capable of pulling humanity and the planet back from the brink, our personal relationship with the earth is crucial. It lies at the crux of why we were born, what we came here to do, and certainly will determine our ultimate fate. In "Earth Calling", Ellen Gunter and Ted Carter have provided us with a manual for deepening and fine-tuning that relationship and has also vividly demonstrated the consequences of not doing so." --Carolyn Bakershow more